One of the things that makes conservatives "conservative" is the concept, somewhat outdated in our "modern times," that perhaps some boundaries are not just stupid and arbitrary restrictions that have been "imposed" on us, but are ideas that have withstood the test of hundreds of generations for very good reasons.

Doesn't mean that all old ideas are good ones just because they're old, of course. But the reverse, that all old ideas are bad ones, is equally false.

I don't think Whedon's decision was arbitrary--As I've thought about it more, I can see that he was trying to introduce a level of suspense in the last act that would not have been possible otherwise, and the "false deaths" of other characters during those scenes seems to confirm that. That he was willing to kill off a major sequel draw doing this shows some integrity, but then, I've never accused him of lack of that.

An example of the type of nihilistic thinking I was talking about would have been if all the characters had survived the battle, were all sitting in the lounge before the end of the film, and suddenly a meteor destroyed the ship.